O'Connell, J;
Shafran, R;
Pote, H;
(2021)
A Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effectiveness of Face-to-Face and Digital Training in Improving Child Mental Health Literacy Rates in Frontline Pediatric Hospital Staff.
Frontiers in Psychiatry
, 11
, Article 570125. 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.570125.
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Abstract
Background: Children with chronic physical health conditions are up to six times more likely to develop a mental health condition than their physically well peers. Frontline pediatric hospital staff are in a good position to identify mental health problems and facilitate appropriate support for patients. To date, no evaluation of mental health literacy training has taken place with this professional group to enable early identification of difficulties. It is also not known whether face-to-face or digital training is more effective or preferable in this setting. To improve the skills of frontline hospital staff, a face-to-face and digital mental health literacy training course was delivered using MindEd content and evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. / Method: Two-hundred and three frontline staff across different professions from a tertiary pediatric hospital were randomized to a face-to-face (n = 64), digital (n = 71), or waitlist control group (n = 68). Face-to-face training was two and a half hours and digital training took ~1 h. The effects of training were evaluated pre- and post-training and at two-week follow-up. Questionnaires assessed mental health knowledge, stigma, confidence in recognizing concerns and knowing what to do, actual helping behavior, as well as training delivery preference, completion rate, and satisfaction. / Results: Both face-to-face and digital training increased mental health knowledge, confidence in recognizing mental health problems and knowing what to do compared to waitlist controls. Digital training increased actual helping behavior relative to the waitlist controls and stigma decreased across all groups. Staff were satisfied with both delivery methods but preferred face-to-face training. / Conclusions: The results provide promising findings that digital content is an effective way of improving mental health literacy in frontline pediatric hospital staff. Providing digital training could be a time-efficient way of upskilling non-mental health professionals to identify mental health needs in a pediatric population and facilitate access to appropriate care.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | A Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effectiveness of Face-to-Face and Digital Training in Improving Child Mental Health Literacy Rates in Frontline Pediatric Hospital Staff |
| Location: | Switzerland |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.570125 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.570125 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2021 O'Connell, Shafran and Pote. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | mental health literacy, randomized controlled trial (RCT), pediatric, digital training, face to face training, frontline staff, recognition, confidence |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10123938 |
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